Beauty: soft gold NYE makeup tutorial

31.12.15

Hi babes! I bet that a lot of you are still figuring out how you're going to do your make up for New Year's Eve or any other upcoming holiday parties, so I figured I'd provide you with some inspiration. This makeup look isn't super intricate or hard, but not for beginners either. Intermediate level skills are required. And I guarantee you'll look hawt as hell.

What you'll need:

EYES

- an eyeshadow primer

- gold eyeshadow

- light brown matte eyeshadow

- dark eyeshadow (brown, black, plummy, all good)

- black eyeliner

- gold/glitter eyeliner

- false lashes

BROWS

- eyebrow powder (I prefer to keep the brows softer with this look, so no cream or liquid eyebrow products)

FACE

- a warm toned blush (peachy or coral)

- a good highlighter

- your favourite foundation, preferably one that is long lasting - look for a matte finish as those generally stay put better

LIPS

- a matte, muted rosey shade - think My Lips But Better

First, of course, you get your base ready: foundation where needed. I used my holy grail foundation, Revlon Colorstay in Ivory with a bit of darker foundation mixed in to get my colour match. The I added blush - I like to follow my cheekbones, not applying too much colour in the front part of my face. Subsequently, you can apply copious amounts of highlighter on the tops of the cheekbones, along the bridge of your nose, above the eyebrow, on the brow bone, on your cupid's bow: wherever you want to catch the light. My blush and highlighter are both from the Sleek Face Form kit, still one of my all time faves.

Moving on to the eyes: do your eyebrows as you usually do. I did an eyebrow tutorial here. My brows have gotten a bit tinner since that post, though, I'm kind of over the strong brow trend, and I feel like thinner brows work better to "open up" the eye. Then, apply eyeshadow primer all over the lid (I use UD Primer Potion). Use a blending brush to swipe the light brown blending shade where your crease is/should be: where the eyelid ends, and the brow bone starts. I used the Urban Decay Naked palette's Naked shade for this. Then, grab a normal eyeshadow brush and apply your gold eyeshadow, all over the lid. I used Urban Decay's Half Baked. I could have made the gold stand out more by using a wet brush, but I wanted to keep the look relatively soft, so I didn't really pack the product on.

Time to move onto the main affair: the false lashes! I used my Eylure x Katy Perry Cool Kitty lashes again, they're so cool. Let me first reassure you: I also struggle with false lashes. Or more accurately, used to struggle. I read a great tip somewhere on pinterest about cutting your falsies in three pieces to make application easier, and I haven't looked back since I tried it. Not only is the application SO much easier, I also feel like the lashes stay put much better: they don't tend to come loose at the corners like they do when I apply them as one strip. And nothing makes me self conscious like false lashes that are barely hanging on.

Now, grab your eyelash glue, apply it to the root of the first piece of your false lashes, and let it dry for at least 15 seconds. I speed up the process by blowing on the glue, so it already dries a bit before I put it on my eyelid. This ensures that the glue is already sticky/tacky and will stay put straight away. When you apply the falsies to your eyelids, get as close to your lashes as you possibly can. I find it helps to sort of "squeeze" the falsies into your eyelashes using your thumb and index finger. I know it sounds complicated but it's easier than it sounds, and if you mess up you can simply pull them off, apply a little more glue and stick em on again. If you still have issues getting them as close as possible to your own lashes and you still see a gap, you should first apply a line of liner or pencil above our lashes: the black will conceal the bit of bare skin between your lashes and the falsies.

Put on every piece of the false eyelashes carefully, making sure that they sit right next to each other without gaps. Before applying the last piece, make sure it isn't too long (it shouldn't extend past your own lashline), because overly long strip lashes drag your eye down. Simply cut off excess to make the last piece fit your eye. When everything is in place, I use my index finger to "push up" the falsies, softly pushing them away from the eye to make them stand up more, which makes the effect of the lashes bolder.

To finish the eye makeup, I used a thin line of black eyeliner to cover the base of the false eyelashes. After that, I added my gold glitter eyeliner from HEMA right above the black eyeliner and in the lower inner corner of my eye. Don't worry if you get some gold/glitter on your black eyeliner, you can just go over the black again when you've applied the gold to cover up any mistakes. Finally, I add some dark eyeshadow or pencil to the lower outer corner of my eye, to intensify the look, and apply mascara to my bottom lashes. The top lashes don't need mascara if you've used false lashes, unless your lashes are a lighter colour than the falsies of course.

Et voila!

On the nails, I used this beautiful L'Oreal Paris Color Riche polish in Black Diamond. It's from a holiday collection from a few years ago I think, but our store still carries it. My boyfriend got it for me as a little Christmas gift, and I didn't even know the effect would be so cool when I first applied the polish. It dries into this sort of sparkly, sandy, cement like finish: matte glitter, and lots of texture.

It's opaque in two layers. The nail polish also stays like a trooper, it took me until day three to
get some minor wear at the tips, and it was a lot easier to remove than
regular glitter polish. New fav!

On the lips, I used a mix of two Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvets (aka my fav lip product ever): Beau Brun and Nude-ist. I can't get over how lovely these feel on the lips, nor how beautiful the creamy matte finish is. These also mix very well with lipsticks, btw, great for experimenting.

And there you go! This look shouldn't take you too long, and I bet you have most of these products lying around already. If the false lashes are too intimidating, you can simply swap them for your favourite intense mascara, but do go for loads of length and volume in the blackest black because this look needs dramatic lashes.